Universal healthcare—a no-brainer*

It began, as so many things do these days, with a Donald Trump tweet. Frustrated by his inability to kill the 'Obamacare' expansion of public healthcare provision in the United States, Trump seized on a protest about the under-funding of Britain's National Health Service (NHS) in London two Saturdays ago to thrash the entire concept of universal healthcare paid out of taxes and free at the point of delivery.

“The Democrats are pushing for universal healthcare [in the US] while thousands of people are marching in the UK because their system is going broke and not working,” he tweeted. It was an awkward moment for Britain's Conservative prime minister, Theresa May, who tries to avoid criticising Trump whenever possible, so she let her health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, respond instead.